Statement Made

The moment called for celebration. Maybe a bat twirl, perhaps a slight tug of the jersey, or even a rollicking orchestrated dance with one of his teammates.
After Edgar Santos swatted a two-run opposite field homer, extending a three-run lead to five in the bottom of the sixth inning, the entire Bryant team was ready to explode, lining up along the third base line as Santos circled the bases as routinely as a morning jog.
Yet the William Bryant ace right-hander and No. 3 hitter isn’t one to celebrate. He had other things on his mind - like finishing off his complete game against Brooklyn rival Grand St. Campus, an eventual 11-7 victory Monday afternoon at the Elmjack Little League complex in Jackson Heights. “You never stop playing,” he said after striking out seven and allowing just one earned run. “You got to keep going.”
A few players got to tap his helmet in recognition of his second homer of the year as Santos made a beeline to the bench, but it was an anticlimactic adjunct to the momentum-turning blast.
Manager Rocco Rotundi had emphasized the importance of Monday afternoon’s battle with the Wolves, the two-time Queens West-A defending champions. Bryant had a soft first-half schedule, and the tilt with Grant St. was certainly a test. Santos wasn’t about to lose focus so close to the finish line.
“He’s our leader,” Rotundi said. “Last year, he helped carry us to our first playoff appearance in who knows how long. The kids look to him as the leader. He leads and the rest of us follow.”
With Santos leading the charge, Bryant continues to truck on. Even on an afternoon when they were sloppy in the field, enabling Grant St. to score six unearned runs, the Owls won rather comfortably to improve to 10-0 in the division. Despite fielding miscues repeatedly letting Santos down, the Woodside resident’s demeanor never changed. He offered words of encouragement, particularly to shortstop Dean Bigay and it eventually paid off when the senior started a 6-4-3 double play in the seventh.
“If you start cursing at them, say foul language, they have their heads
down,” he said. “I just tell them to forget about it; there’s more plays to come.”
“You’d rather have a star like that,” said freshman third baseman Chris Diaz, who scored twice and drove in two runs.
There is obviously more to the Owls than just Santos. Sophomore catcher Mostafa Ghonim has filled in admirably for last year’s stalwart, Wei Kan Chang, now at Queens College. Diaz has solidified the middle of the order, providing protection for Santos. And the entire lineup has taken to Rotundi’s small-ball approach, doing all the little things - moving runners over, working out walks, taking the extra base.
Still, despite all the wins to start the year, the meeting with Grand St. was pivotal. If, for no other reason, than this was a game they lost in years past, when early leads would be whittled away by sloppiness.
“But today,” Rotundi said, “we found away to close it out. You have to beat teams like Grand St. and [John] Adams if your goal is to win the division. I expressed to the team how important this game was to the program. We knew we had to come out firing. We really wanted this game.”
Even so, they didn’t explode after the final out. Bryant acted as if it was just another win, kind of like Santos after his two-run homer. “We had unfinished business,” the senior said. “We’re here to make a name for ourselves.”